"I'm very grateful to be in the position I'm in because it enables me to focus completely on my job." -- Rep. Bradley Byrne

MOBILE, Alabama – After struggling to a narrow victory in a special election Republican primary runoff for a vacant congressional seat, Bradley Byrne finds himself in an enviable position barley more than three months later.

The 2014 primary qualifying deadline passed last week without a single Republican or Democrat lining up to challenge him.

It is a far cry from last year when he was one of nine Republicans jostling to fill the unexpired term of Jo. Bonner, R-Mobile, who resigned to take a job as vice chancellor in the University of Alabama System. Byrne, R-Fairhope, finished first in the initial round of voting in September and then fought back a stiff challenge from conservative activist Dean Young on Nov. 5.

“I’m very grateful to be in the position I’m in because it enables me to focus completely on my job and not have to worry about campaigning,” Byrne said from his office on Capitol Hill on Monday.

His predecessor won three consecutive general elections before he reached the point where politicians considered him virtually invulnerable and avoided serious opposition. But University of South Alabama political scientist Sam Fisher noted that the state’s Democratic Party has declined over the past decade.

“If I’m a Democratic challenger, I’m going to need a lot of money, and people who are giving money are going to concentrate on races that seem winnable,” he said.

Byrne said he believes his lopsided general election victory of Democrat Burton LeFlore also gives would-be challengers pause. “The Democrats are having trouble recruiting candidates in lots of races, not just mine,” he said.

Since taking office, Byrne has moved quickly and aggressively toward establishing a record of conservative votes. He came out against a plan backed by the Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives to liberalize the country’s immigration laws. He signed on to a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with a Republican alternative. He signed on to a bill to ban federal funding for abortions.

He also has taken steps to kill a proposed study of the feasibility of turning part of the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta into a national park – an issued that erupted among conservative activists during last year’s elections – and co-authored a letter urging President Barack Obama to maintain the Navy’s commitment to buy 52 Littoral Combat Ship vessels. Mobile’s Austal USA is one of the companies making those ships.

The net effect of Byrne’s short tenure in Congress is that a challenger from the right would have trouble finding an effective issue, Fisher said.

“One of the things he did in the campaign and continues to do now is drift right, or be as far right as possible,” he said.

Pete Riehm, a tea party activist from Mobile County who backed Young in last year’s campaign, agreed that Byrne has given little cause for concern so far among conservatives.

“He’s been very attuned to what the people want, and he’s jumped on things that make people mad,” he said. “You could say he’s doing all the right things.”

Riehm, who unsuccessfully challenged Bonner during the 2012 primary, said Byrne also benefits from timing. Anyone with a strong desire to run for Congress probably already tried last year since there never would have been a better time. He said that Young and the other losing candidates would face an even more daunting challenge going up against an incumbent this year.

“I think to a certain degree, we have real election fatigue before we even get to 2014,” said Riehm, co-founder of the Common Sense Campaign. “Having ridden the bull once myself, you’re really eager to get up on it the first time. You’re not as eager the second time.”

Alabama Republican Party Chairman Bill Armistead agreed.

“I think Congressman Byrne has hit the ground running in Washington. I think coming off that (primary), folks who were in that battle don’t’ see a reason to jump back in so soon,” he said. “Sometimes, it takes a while to recover from an exhausting campaign.”

The next major issue looming before Congress is a decision over the next couple of weeks on whether to raise the nation’s debt limit again to permit more borrowing. Byrne said he has told the Republican leadership that he would not support such an effort without significant spending cuts in return.

“The fact that we don’t have any opposition doesn’t change how we do business at all,” Byrne said.